And then there was light
by psquare
Summary: [J x TK] Something is conspiring to have a certain couple meet a certain end... will it succeed? COMPLETE.
1. Part I

**_A/N:_** This is, basically, going to be a J/TK vig in three parts. This is my first attempt at this pairing, and I'm not entirely convinced about the characterization myself, but here's hoping you enjoy it.

_**And then there was light…**_

_**Part 1**_

_Click._

A small ball of golden light erupted just above the handle of the glowrod, struggling to expand; struggling to dissipate the immediate darkness to glow with its usual golden clarity. It flickered and expanded a couple of times, before, with an ominous muffled hiss coming from the handle, the light gave out altogether. Jacen Solo smirked, and sighed.

How symbolic.

"It is not working?"

Jacen looked across the darkness to where he knew the calm female voice was coming from. "No, it's not," he confirmed. "Apparently the battery's down and out."

Tenel Ka 'Chume Djo shifted slightly. "I see." There was an overpowering silence after that, broken only by the sound of water dripping from the walls of the cave they were trapped in. Jacen leant back against the cold, damp wall of the cave, reflecting on the all the happenings that had culminated in the two of them being in this situation.

He and Tenel Ka had planned to retreat to Naboo – if only for a few days – for a… He didn't know what to call it, exactly. Vacation? Rendezvous? Rest? He didn't even fully understand why he had accepted Tenel Ka's invitation, either. Maybe, five years after the war, and after all his travels, he just wanted a break. Maybe it was something deeper than that. Which one was it? He didn't know.

He didn't think, then, that he'd _ever_ know.

They had been on a walk in the wilderness not far from where they were staying, enjoying a solitude that had been denied to them for so long, before the earth had begun to shake. Jacen wasn't sure if it was even a natural earthquake, but it sure had been unprecedented. Rocks had tumbled down the slope they had been navigating, and before they knew it, both of them had been pressed into the damp cave, layers of unsteady soil and rock covering their only means of entrance – and exit. And of them had lost their lightsabers in the tumble.

A curious coincidence.

Still slightly disoriented, and taking a deep breath, Jacen rose to his feet. "Well, we're still breathing," he said. "This cave's got to have a way out." He turned to where Tenel Ka had been sitting. "Shall we go, then?"

Her answering voice, though, came from way ahead of him. "Yes, I have been waiting."

Jacen rolled his eyes. _What else can I expect?_ He made his way to where he had heard Tenel Ka's voice and reached out and gripped her hand gently. "Okay, then."

He could almost feel Tenel Ka's piercing gaze on him as they walked. "That was not necessary," she said.

"What was not necessary?"

"The hand." The arm in his grip stiffened slightly, but she made no move to pull away from him. "You could always sense me in the Force."

Jacen smiled, even though she couldn't see it. "There are some things that need to be felt beyond the Force, too." His grip tightened, as if to mock her protest. "Besides, we don't want to get separated, now, do we?"

Tenel Ka sighed – a sigh of acceptance, but… there was no resignation in her tone. There was a world of difference between resignation and acceptance, and suddenly Jacen found himself feeling a strange satisfaction, little whispers of elation flooding his heart, lighting it up with an emotion he had thought he had been made incapable of feeling. If so, then…

Her voice snapped him back to the present. "If you insist," she was saying. Jacen suddenly fought back an urge to laugh. "Yes, I _insist_," he said playfully, unaware of when or why he had become so, "And it's not a big sacrifice you're making here by holding my hand, Tenel Ka."

"Of course I'm not," her voice perfectly even, with a vague undercurrent of surprise. Jacen sighed. Some things never changed.

Just then, his danger sense kicked in like a bucket of cold water dumped over his head, a few seconds before the earth underneath their feet started shaking again. Fissures traced their zigzag paths along the cave walls, and dust poured from the ceiling of the cave, enveloping them in a foggy, suffocating mist. Jacen gathered the Force around him to hold back the rocks – he could feel Tenel Ka begin to do the same – when the ceiling, without warning, collapsed right on top of them.

Without even really _thinking_, Jacen shut his eyes and threw himself on top of Tenel Ka as the walls of the cave collapsed. Surprisingly however, not a single rock touched him – them – and he opened his eyes.

To immediately gaze into the deepest pools of grey he had ever seen.

The freak earthquake seemed to have caused something in the distance to dislocate, and a faint, blue-tinged light filtered in, lighting up Tenel Ka's face in a soft glow. They stared at each other, their lips parted, but no words coming out. Finally Tenel Ka whispered, "Light… we have light…"

_Who needs light_, Jacen thought, _when your eyes are suns by themselves…_

Suddenly something clicked and whirred in his head, and Jacen blinked. _Since when did I start becoming poetic?_ He hoisted himself to his feet, dusting his shirt, and before he could offer help to Tenel Ka, she had risen as well. "Let us get out of here as soon as possible," she said, turning her back to him and commencing her walk to where the light was coming from.

Jacen found himself grinning. There was something in her voice that had intrigued – and thrilled? Maybe – him, and he was desperate to know what it was. He started following Tenel Ka.

This was turning out to be an interesting experience.


	2. Part II

**_A/N:_** Thanks to those who reviewed – sorry this took kind of long, and I'm not even going of think of bothering you with excuses. Go ahead, read, and enjoy.

_**Part 2**_

It was a welcome transition.

Walking along a seemingly endless stone tunnel, edges limned only by the slightest glow of a light so tantalizingly close – yet so far away – and into a cave that was actually quite brightly lit, was indeed a welcome change, reflected Tenel Ka. Maybe the symbolism of the whole situation was getting to her – as it would, being stuck there with no lightsabers and only Jacen for company – but she actually felt quite… _relieved_. Had she been scared back there? No.

_Uncomfortable_, perhaps.

Jacen entered the cave after her, staring at the copious amounts of native algae and what-not, glowing gently in their bioluminescence. The soft blue-green light threw shadows over his face, bringing up in sharp relief his sharp facial features… and scars she had never seen before. In fact, there was a _ruggedness_ in his face that seemed to have developed during the War, and afterward… a refining, and _ageing_ of features that she had once found appealing in their softness.

Suddenly his gaze shifted to her, eyes burning with such intensity, brow knotted in a frown that seemed to have come out of nowhere, that any normal woman would've gasped, or taken a step back. But she being Tenel Ka, merely stared back at him, one eyebrow arched regally.

"Well, Jacen?"

He let out a breath through pursed lips. "Well, it seems that we have ventured even deeper into this labyrinth." He gestured vaguely to the walls of the cave around them. "This seems to be a dead end. We'd better retrace our steps."

Tenel Ka nodded, but neither of them made a move.

_How strange._

The sight of the gently glowing plant life on the walls seemed to have transfixed her, involuntarily pulling her into the vortex of a whirlwind of memories that she'd rather ignore for the time being. Memories of pain, blood, fighting, _loss_… All this reminded her so much of… reminded her of…

"Yuuzhan Vong."

She looked sharply toward Jacen as he muttered these words, his own eyes glazed with some memory that he seemed to be seeing. As if he had sensed her gaze on him, he turned to look at her. "Yuuzhan Vong," he repeated. "All this would look quite at home in a Yuuzhan Vong setup, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, it would," Tenel Ka said, rather warily.

His eyes turned back to the algae, and a wistful look hovered over his features. "I certainly would prefer this light over a glowglobe…"

Then, as if shaking himself awake from a daydream, he shook his head sharply. "Let us try and find our way out of here now," he said, his voice strong, hard and decisive – just like the Jacen she knew.

_Like the Jacen I know…_

Tenel Ka pondered over the thought for an eternal instant, marveling at its absurdity. No, the Jacen _she_ knew had been the opposite – wistful, indecisive, humorous – or so she supposed; that was what _he_ had claimed, anyway – and… amusing. Appealing.

Adorable, even.

And then in a gap of just a few years, a gap in which the galaxy had faced its most trying war yet, a war whose scars would still blight the progress of the generations to come, Jacen had faced unimaginable trials – had seemingly come back from enemy captivity holding the key to the end of the war, when everybody – even his twin sister, even Tenel Ka _herself_ – had assumed that he was dead, and he had changed.

_Changed_ seemed to be too simple a word to describe what transition he seemed to have undergone. And yet, in its simplicity, the word was appropriate.

She wondered – briefly – which Jacen she would prefer. Then she abandoned that train of thought abruptly, for after all, whatever Jacen had undergone, how much ever he had changed, he was still _Jacen Solo_ – the friend she was glad – _glad? Yes, I suppose_ – to have by her side. And after so many years after having talked to him, the happiness was only doubled.

A ghost of a smile hovered over her lips, as she answered him. "I have only been waiting for you to say that, Jacen – it was not difficult to assess our situation at the outset itself."

He smiled rather embarrassedly at her, reaching up with his right hand to gently ruffle his wavy hair, like he used to do so much before. Tenel Ka just had to marvel at the flashes of the person he used to be that escaped his person at times, like summer rain that was refreshingly chill. "I guess you caught me day-dreaming _again_, Tenel Ka."

The smile widened. "Day-dreaming? I'm disappointed, friend Jacen. I was rather hoping that you were formulating an escape plan."

Jacen stared at her, mouth slightly open, before he threw his head back, and laughed. "Wow, you've gotten better, Tenel Ka." He grinned widely. "That was a joke, right?"

Unwilling to let him see her desperately trying to suppress her ever-widening smile – even a laugh that threatened to bubble out her mouth unprecedented – she swept past him. "No," she said. "I was being serious."

She was able to feel his surprised gaze even on the back of her neck.

Jacen shrugged, and turned back into the cave. "Well anyway," he said, "Before we leave, I'd better make sure that we have some light on the way to guide us."

Tenel Ka watched with something to akin to fascination on her face, as he removed a large, green, almost paper-thin leaf of one of the native trees of Naboo from somewhere on his person. Scooping some of the bio-fluorescent algae of the walls, and tearing thin rags of cloth from the edge of his Jedi cloak and plaiting them into very tight strips, his deft fingers got to work. Soon, he had prepared a sort of makeshift lamp, illuminated from the inside by the bio-luminescent algae.

The blue-green light of the florescent plant life, accentuated by the pale green, translucent outer casing, cast an ethereal light, even when dimmed in the cave, which was gently pulsating with light of the plant-life.

"Here." Jacen handed the lamp over to her, and she took it, continuing her fascinated examination of the makeshift invention. "It's alright, I hope?"

Tenel Ka nodded slowly. "Fact."

He smiled – a strange smile, a smile that startled her – then started down once again into the stone tunnel. "Good. At least you won't feel uncomfortable anymore."

A thrill raced up Tenel Ka's spine. Despite her best efforts at concealing her thoughts, he _had_ sensed what she was feeling… He was able to do that, while _he_ was these days, a blank slate to her more often than not. A suppressed snort lifted a corner of her lips, as she fingered the lamp for some moments, then started after Jacen.

Interesting, indeed.


	3. Part III

**_A/N:_** A huge thanks for all the reviews, and sorry for the delay – exams, music concerts and my other ongoing fics ate up most of my time, but this is finally done. Do read, enjoy and review. 

Aand, you _do_ remember the summary mentioning "_will_", not "_what_", right?

**_Part 3_**

It seemed like aeons had passed.

No words had passed between them since their departure from the algae-cave; Tenel Ka seemed to be lost in her thoughts. Which, by itself, Jacen thought, was a prime example of the effect the cave was starting to have on them.

The lamp that Tenel Ka carried cast an ethereal globe of light around her – a perfect sphere of gold, tinted slightly by varying shades of red and green. Jacen noticed that she leaned ever so slightly to her left when she walked, a sort of subconscious compensation by the body for the arm she had lost – lost in that careless battle between the two of them, many years ago. Jacen didn't flinch this time, though, as he thought about it – he had gotten past that guilt.

Besides, there were things a lot more precious that she could have lost – and _had_ lost, in fact.

But dwelling on _that_ wasn't going to do him any good, now.

Reaching into the Force, Jacen spread his perception in the area around him. The rocks were still too unstable to try and force their way out – triggering another earthquake might mean cutting off their supply of air.

He delved deeper, letting the Force wash through him. A spark of sentient energy – energy that seemed to pulsate from the very ground – flickered to life on the crest of that wave and, curious, Jacen reached out for it…

Before he could do so, however, it exploded in an explosion of light and the resulting waves slammed into his consciousness with the force of a rampaging Wookiee. He withdrew quickly from the Force, as the world seemed to swim in a mixture of gold and black, interspersed by vague formless sounds that slowly materialised into a voice – a voice that was shouting his name…

"Jacen? Jacen!"

Jacen opened his eyes – without recollection of when or why he had closed them – to see Tenel Ka holding the lamp to his face, concern in her eyes. "What happened, friend Jacen?" she asked, a frown darkening the clean lines of her face.

Jacen ran a hand through his hair in a nervous reaction. "I'm wondering… could there be more planets… _awakened_ planets… like Zonoma Sekot?"

Tenel Ka's eyebrows lifted in comprehension. "Are you saying that Naboo is something like Zonoma Sekot?"

He shook his head. "Not really. But considering what's happened so far, I'm willing to consider it as a possibility."

Before Tenel Ka could have the chance to comment on his statement, the ground beneath their feet started trembling again, as wave after inexplicable seismic wave pulverised the already-unstable rock. Dust showered around them, and Jacen shook his head in exasperation. "We'd better get out of here before the tunnel –"

Without giving him a chance to complete his sentence, Tenel Ka nodded, grabbed his hand and started running, holding the lamp out in front of her. The walls around them started collapsing like a pack of sabacc cards, while Jacen kept any from hitting them through the Force. The next few minutes flew by in a haze of dust clouds, collapsing rock, sharp turns, hot, short gasps, the pounding of feet against the heaving ground… before the rumbling stopped abruptly, throwing Jacen to the ground, and Tenel Ka on top of him.

"Déjà vu… in reverse," Jacen remarked dryly.

Tenel Ka got off immediately in response, allowing Jacen to stand up as well, dusting his cloak. The two refused to meet each other's eyes, as an inexplicable tingling rose up Jacen's spine once again. _I haven't felt anything like this since Yavin 4… _he thought laughingly – the humour tinged with a little bitterness as he remembered the fate that had befallen that planet.

A gentle, fresh breeze blew through the ruined cave, and the two Jedi's eyes widened with hope. "This earthquake must've uncovered the exit," Jacen said, resuming his stride down the tunnel, Tenel Ka following in his wake.

"Fact," Tenel Ka, said smiling, pointing ahead of them, where sunlight shone through a newly exposed hole. Handing the makeshift algae-lamp back to Jacen, Tenel Ka heaved herself through the hole and onto the ground. She reached down and helped Jacen up as well, who heaved a sigh of relief at having solid planetary ground back under his feet again. He turned around to see both of their lightsaber pommels lying safely beneath an outcrop of rock.

How curious… 

He reached down to pick up his lightsaber, when that sensation that had struck him within the cave swamped his consciousness again. And in the farthest reaches of that sensation glowed something familiar – something that he had once known very well, something that was very close to his heart…

"Do you feel it?" Tenel Ka asked suddenly, coming to his side.

Jacen nodded slowly.

"It… it felt like Anakin," she continued tentatively. Her voice trailed away as he fingered his lightsaber pommel silently. _Anakin, but why?_

"_The question is deeper than the answer itself…_"

That statement, spoken what seemed like centuries ago, and at the same time, just a few seconds before by his mentor, had never rung more true. He turned toward Tenel Ka, who was observing him with stoic patience. It was funny, he thought, how she managed to look beautifully regal even when her face bore a fine sheet of soot and her clothes blackened. He reached with his hand and wiped a bit of the dust away from her lips.

She shivered slightly under his touch, but made no move to stop him. His finger slowly traced a line from her lips, across her cheek, before gently lifting her chin. As his face moved closer to hers, Jacen thought of the years he had spent travelling in the darkness of space, in otherworldly planets and among little heard-of civilisations. Even when in pursuit of the light of knowledge – of the Force, of his role, of his place in the galaxy – darkness had always overshadowed a long-ignored part of his soul. He could still feel it, biting at his heels…

His lips brushed across hers, tentatively at first, then intensifying in passion. In that moment, the darkness crumbled, dissipated, lost in the spectacular wave of feeling that was flooding through him…

And then there was light.

_**Finis**_


End file.
